Japan's Credit Saison Co has secured permission from Vietnam's central bank to buy 49 percent stake in a financial firm owned by the unlisted Ho Chi Minh City Development Bank (HDBank), the State Bank of Vietnam said on Wednesday.

HDBank will retain a 50 percent of stake in HDFinance, while the remaining 1 percent will be sold to Ho Chi Minh Securities Corp, the central bank said in a statement. It gave no value of the deal.

HDFinance was formed in 2007 as Societe Generale Viet Finance and was the first non-bank, wholly foreign-owned financial firm licensed in Vietnam. It was acquired in October 2013 by HDBank, which provides consumer loans via a nationwide network.